Mastercard Deepens B2B Payment Footprint In Australia

Mastercard is looking to take a larger share of the B2B payments space in Australia by pushing for companies to pay their suppliers with its products. To do so, the credit card firm announced Monday (Dec. 19) that it will be working with supply chain finance company Octet Finance.

Existing Mastercard corporate customers in Australia will now be allowed to enable their own customers to make cross-border payments to suppliers using Mastercard credit and debit cards, reports said.

For companies on the Octet Finance platform accessing supply chain services, businesses can make payments on the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services platform for transactions made on the Octet platform.

“Buyers and sellers are now realizing that B2B procurement (using card numbers) is not only for rewards such as frequent flyer miles, but also the security, efficiency, cost and speed offered by the Mastercard network in addition to the working capital benefits of up to 55 payment-free days provided by the issuer,” stated Clive Isenberg, managing director at Octet.

The companies added that businesses on the Octet platform can settle invoices from domestic suppliers within one business day.

“The Octet platform in conjunction with Mastercard capabilities removes friction from complex finance and often manual processes while providing full transparency and visibility of transactions,” added Andrew Cartwright, country manager for Mastercard Australia, in another statement.

Earlier this year Mastercard announced the Mastercard Commercial Network App, a mobile app connected to its commercial card products in Hong Kong to enable its SME clients to similarly manage supplier payments and relationships and encourage use of Mastercard commercial cards for B2B transactions.